THE eEUROPE INITIATIVE

eEurope is a political initiative to ensure the European Union fully benefits for generations to come from the changes the Information Society is bringing.

eEurope is also intended to accelerate positive change in the Union. It aims at ensuring this change towards the Information Society is cohesive, not divisive.  Integrating, not fragmenting.  An opportunity not a threat.  In essence, eEurope aims at bringing the benefits of the Information Society to the reach of all Europeans.

eEurope – An "Information Society for all’ was launched by the European Commission on 8 December 1999.

eEurope 2002, with the joint effort of all stakeholders, has already delivered major changes and has increased the number of citizens and businesses connected to the Internet.  It has reshaped the regulatory environment for communications networks and services and for e-commerce has opened the door to new generations of mobile and multimedia services.

To the eEurope 2002 Action Plan has succeeded the eEurope 2005 Action Plan which was presented at the Sevilla European Council in June 2002.  The objective of this Action Plan is to stimulate secure services, applications and content based on a widely available broadband infrastructure.  The eEurope 2005 initiative is a key element in the strategy of modernizing the European economy.

More detailed information on eEurope is also available on : http://europa.eu.int/comm/information_society/eeurope/index_en.htm   

There are various players who are actively involved in the standardization work necessary to realize eEurope.  Those players are CEN, CENELEC and ETSI, the so-called European Standards Organizations (ESOs) under the coordination of the ICT Standards Board (ICTSB). 

In the field of Information and Communications Technologies these three organizations have extensive interests, products and programmes and currently work very closely in developing the ICT field throughout the European Union.
Detailed information about the standardization achievements of the ESOs regarding eEurope, is available under Technical Activities: see CEN, CENELEC, ETSI pages.

The important event focussing on eEurope was the IST 2003 Exhibition held in Milano on October 2003

Enterprise Europe News Update concerning e-Health standardization, in line with the e-Europe 2005 Action Plan 
ICT standards for public health protection - Invitation to contribute
Enterprise Europe, Brussels, 21 November 2003 - Public health stakeholders, including representatives from hospitals, doctors and social security systems as well as industry players, are invited to participate in detailed standardisation work to enhance health protection, and the quality, accessibility and efficiency of the EU's national health care systems.

Standardization work to improve the interoperability of e-health systems, services and applications will formally begin at the first meeting of the e-Health standardization Focus Group in Brussels on 17 December 2003. This group, formed by the standardization body CEN/ISSS at the request of the Enterprise DG, is open to all interested parties.

Focus Group experts will be asked to identify current and future e-health standardization needs, in line with the e-Europe 2005 Action Plan and the 22 May 2003 EU ministerial declaration of support for the use of information and communication technologies to this end.
For more information:
http://europa.eu.int/information_society/eeurope/ehealth/conference/2003/index_en.htm.
http://www.cenorm.be/isss
  
Currently 9 projects of work related to the  “Standardization in support to eEurope initiative” are under progress, they are:

Project n°	Subject
1	Standardization on fibre cables and accessories related to the local network and new rights of ways
2	Study of the possible use of ISO/IEC Guide 71 for ICT standardization.  Guide 71 has become CEN/CENELEC Guide 6 (e-Accessibility)
3	Preparation of an online course of electrotechnics practices mainly for electrical installations in buildings, based on CENELEC standards and using e-Learning software
4	Workshop on standardization work in the field of Smart House with emphasis on the concept of Design for All and Assistive Technologies in ICT
5	Workshop on "TV Broadcasting for All" - subtitling and audio description in TV Broadcasting
6	Development of a strategic plan describing the role of CENELEC and possible future initiatives in the ICT area, in relation to eEurope
7	CENELEC contribution to a common CEN/CENELEC/ETSI brochure promoting e-Europe standardization activities in the field of e-Accessibility
8	Standardization programme in the area of Digital TV
9	TV Broadcasting for All

Mandates

The following is a list of 98/34EC adopted EU standardization mandates received by CEN, CENELEC and ETSI in the year 2003

M/340	Programming mandate addressed to CEN, CENELEC and ETSI in the field of services
M/339	Standardization mandate to CEN, CENELEC and ETSI in support of interoperability of electronic invoicing in the Community
M/338	Standardization mandate to CEN, CENELEC and ETSI in support of interoperability of electronic road toll systems in the Community
M/334	Programming and standardization mandate addressed to CEN, CENELEC and ETSI in the field of interoperability of the trans-European conventional rail system
M/331	"Standardization mandate to CEN, CENELEC and ETSI in support of digital TV and interactive services".  The answer is prepared by JTC Broadcast with the support of STF 255
M/329	"Standardization mandate forwarded to CEN, CENELEC and ETSI in the field of information technology and telecommunications - Harmonized standards covering Ultrawide band (UWD) applications"
M/328	Mandate to CEN, CENELEC and ETSI in support of the new regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services.  This mandate concerns the list of standards to be published in support of the new framework.  The answer is prepared by the OCG ad-hoc group on Electronic Communications Networks and Services Directives (OCG ECN&S) with the support of STF 254

Digital TV
 
In addition to the one page Case study, you will find a background information on the Digital TV inititiative by clicking here.

TV Broadcasting for All

Nowadays, television broadcasting is an essential access point to information, culture and entertainment. If this matter of fact is considered as being normal for 385 million of European citizens, it is not always the case for 59 million hearing-impaired people (of which 4,7 million are profoundly deaf) and 7,4 million visually impaired people. Although this situation considerably improved in the past years, it should be noted that in some areas outstanding issues still continue to hamper a wider development and use of subtitling, sign language presentation and audio description technologies and services.

Moreover, it should be emphasized that developments in this field will not only benefit the community of hearing and sight impaired people but will also improve the living conditions of a larger circle of users like the elderly or people residing or travelling in foreign countries.

For additional information on the ICT standardization work of CENELEC in Europe, click here